On Sundays at the dinner table, the Gonzales family would talk of their dreams for their son, Sef, to become a heart surgeon.

Now, he sits in the dock, on trial for their murder.

The NSW Supreme Court yesterday heard details of the inner workings of the Gonzales family from his aunt, Emily Luna, who said she was a regular visitor.

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The Crown has alleged that Gonzales, 23, killed his parents and sister in part because they threatened to disown him, as he was failing university and had a girlfriend they disapproved of.

Mrs Luna told the court yesterday that Gonzales fell in love with a Chinese girl and his strict Filipino parents asked him to break up with her.

"He was so in love with her. He's taking a photo of her when they went to a picnic and he finished a whole roll of film just taking her photo," she said.

Soon afterwards, his mother told him to end the relationship to concentrate on his studies.

Gonzales told his aunt and mother at the time: "Aunt Emily, up to this day, Mama is still getting jealous of my girlfriends."

His mother replied, "Sef, believe me, when you graduate you'll find the right girl for you."

It was not the first time Teddy and Mary Loiva disapproved of such things. They had hoped their daughter, Clodine, would marry a rich man, and were unhappy when she began seeing a boy with no stable job who they felt did not earn enough. Clodine would leave the house in the middle of the night to meet him.

To sever the relationship, she was sent to Melbourne to continue her schooling.

Sef Gonzales also had problems academically, the court heard. His HSC score was closer to 75 than the 99.9 needed to study medicine.

He enrolled in a "pre-law" course but began changing his university grades, the court heard, and offered to do the same for his sister.

Teddy Gonzales was so disappointed when he discovered this that he said he would go back to the Philippines and live alone.

"Ted was saying he'd had it already," Mrs Luna said. "That was the last straw for him. He said, 'That's it. I'm leaving, I'm going back to the Philippines.' "

Mrs Luna had driven to the North Ryde home to visit the family just after 6pm on the night they were murdered.

No one answered the doorbell but she said she saw a flash of movement through the frosted glass. Believing someone might be at home, she walked around the side of the house but stopped short.

"Something just stopped me that split second I was there," she said. "I decided to ring that evening instead."

At that time, police believe, both Clodine and Mary Loiva had already been murdered and their killer was still inside the house.